Greetings All
We r planning a 9-night stay in Finland this Aug. We are a family of 4(2 adults and 2 girls(10 and 12). I love nature /mountains /scenic view points. My wife enjoys shopping and buzzing city life. My tentative plan is like this..
-arrive in Helsinki and spend 3 nights
-get a train to Kuopio, then, rent a car
-spend 3 nights in Kuopio
-Drive to Ruka and spend 3 nights there
-Take a flight from Kuusamo to London
1-So , what do you think of this tentative itinerary? Should I change something in it?
2-other than car rental and flights, are there stuff that I need to reserve in advance?
Posted by
Washington DC
30067 posts
Of the places you're going, I've only been to Helsinki.
Although I typically don't reserve hotels very far in advance, I'm a solo traveler with not especially high standards. For a family trip, I'd recommend reserving well ahead of town, at least outside Helsinki. I believe business travel will not be at a high level in the capital in August, so I don't think you'll have an issue there unless there's an important special event going on. However, the Finns love the outdoors and August is peak season for outdoor activities. You'll be competing with a lot of Finns for lodging in Kuopio and Ruka, I imagine.
You can check availability of rooms on booking.com and continue to monitor the situation; that should give you an idea of whether you need to book early. You don't need to actually make your reservations on booking.com, but it's a good place for preliminary research. The reviews on that website are generally reliable; you cannot leave a review there unless you've actually stayed at the property. You may well save money by going to the hotel's website to make your reservations. For chain-hotel properties, joining the affinity group is likely to save you 5% or so automatically.
As far as sightseeing goes, I'm not aware of anything requiring prebooking in Helsinki. If you are planning special outdoor activities in Kuopio and Ruka, those may well have limited capacity and need early reservations; I'm not the sort of traveler who takes part in that sort of thing.